the Lord was with him, and poured out his
blessings on a very undeserving man.

Jacob’s life is, in that
sense, a model Christian life.

He goes through good and bad
times, failures and successes,

times of spiritual weakness and times of
growing faith—

and through it all, the Lord was with him.

And as the years passed,
Jacob has able to see more and more,

with eyes of faith, the presence and hand of
God through it all—

and that knowledge made him into a better
man.

How about you, do you see
God’s hand?Do you know he is with you?

INTRO:I have a seminary friend who was so talented

that a well-known church called him as
pastor before he had even graduated.

He
was only 24, he had a sharp mind, lots of ideas and energy.

This was an old church with lots of
tradition and lots of difficult members—

but he seemed to have the magic touch.

There
was no serious conflict, and even when there seemed to be conflict

brewing over some of his youthful decisions,
it just disappeared.

He
ended up staying there a long time and having a very effective ministry.

But
he found out many years later that throughout his early days as pastor

he had stepped on lots of toes.There were some of those difficult,
confrontational

members who were ready to criticize and stir
up conflict and agitate against him.

And
he also found out that there were a couple older men in the congregation who

were working behind the scenes.These men were pillars in this old
church.

They had family connections and history and
carried a lot of weight.

These
two men would go around behind this young pastor when they heard of

feathers ruffled, and they would soothe
people.Listen to gripes and complaints.

They
would say—You’re right.We know.He’s young, he’s green—

but he has so many gifts.And if you will just give him time, it will
work out.

Because of who they were, people listened to
them, and it did work out.

That’s
sort of what we see happening to Jacob on a spiritual level.

This
passage marks the end of an era in Jacob’s life—the Laban era.

Those 20 very significant years of Jacob’s
life.

He arrived in Paddan Aram with nothing, with
just the clothes on his back.

Worked 14 years for his two wives, had 12
children, worked six years during

which he came into his own financially.

But
there was one cloud that hung over those years—

his uncle, boss, and father-in-law
Laban.The man was manipulative liar.

Just
look at Laban’s lies and hypocrisy in this last encounter with Jacob.

Why
did you leave without telling me?

I would have sent you off with joy and
singing, with tambourines and harps.

Liar.He would have confiscated everything Jacob owned.

He’s
such a liar that he doesn’t even see the contradiction in his next statement

when he says—I have the power to harm you
but God warned me not to.

He
very self-righteously tells Jacob not to take any other wives—

even though it was Laban himself who forced
Jacob to become a polygamist.

He
forced him to work in unbearable conditions, he cheated him ten times.

He demanded Jacob pay for losses that no
shepherd would normally have to bear.

He made every effort to bleed Jacob dry.

But
here at the end, when they finally part ways—it’s Jacob who is prosperous.

It’s Jacob who is vindicated in spite of
Laban’s bluster.

It’s Jacob who is standing on the border of
the Promised Land.

And
most importantly, it’s Jacob who has become a tougher man

with a truer and sturdier faith in the
Lord.

The
focal point of this passage is verse 42.Let’s read it again.Jacob says:

“If the God
of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me,

you would
surely have sent me away empty-handed.But God has seen my hardship and the

toil of my
hands, and last night he rebuked you.”

That’s
Jacob’s testimony.That is where he has
come spiritually.

He
is able to look at his life, reflect on 20 years, very difficult years and say—

the Lord has been with me.The Lord has been working behind the scenes

all my life long, even when I didn’t see
him.Even when times were hard.

And
that knowledge has changed Jacob.

He’s a different man than he was when we
first met him, very different.

Here’s
the lesson of this chapter.It’s simple
and profound.

If you are a Christian, God is with
you.And knowing that must change you.

God
is with you whether you feel like he’s with you or not.

He’s with you whether he’s answering your
prayers or it seems like he’s not.

He’s with you when you’re walking close to
him and when you’re not.

And
he’s with you in such a profound and deep and secret way, that you will

never know, never until you get to heaven,
just how much of his faithfulness

and provision you have consumed over the
years.

A
big part of spiritual maturity and growth in grace is simply coming to
this

conviction that the Lord is with you and
then letting that knowledge change you.

How
does it change you?Many ways, but we’ll
look briefly at three.

It
makes you a bold person, a humble person, a worshipping person.

Let’s look at this passage under those three
points and end with a story.

Credit
where credit is due:Sermon by Dr.
Robert Rayburn.

MP#1Knowing God is with you makes you a bold
person

As you read Jacob’s life, there is a recurrent theme
of fear—

fear of
conflict, fear of people, fear of the unknown.

When Esau threatened him, he fled to Paddan
Aram.

A decision
that would change the course of his life forever.

When Laban deceived him on his wedding night and
switch Rachel for Leah,

Jacob tried to protest but Laban browbeat him
claimed this was their custom.

Jacob was
afraid to push the matter and ended up with two wives and seven years.

When his wives were fighting and his household in
turmoil,

Jacob fled
from the conflict and made matters worse.

When it came time to leave, he was afraid to tell
Laban and left town

in the dead
of night, so to speak.

But now when Jacob finds himself in one more fearful
circumstance—

confronted
by Laban, surrounded by Laban’s unhappy relatives who had

superior
numbers and incentive to take whatever they wanted—

Jacob’s
fear evaporates, and he lets Laban have it.

What’s the change?

It’s more than just pent up frustration.

Call it
boldness, or confidence, or courage—

what’s
important is that Jacob was motivated and empowered by his faith.

He’s come to realize—God is with me.

Not only is
he with me, he’s been with me all this time.

And he will
continue to be with me—my future is secure.

He has provided for me and brought me to the border
of the Promised Land.

Ultimately,
Jacob’s not just bold with men, he’s bold with God.Trust, prayer.

There are places in your life where you need the
courage to do the right thing.

You may be
fearful or uncertain because of the people involved, their reaction.

There are decisions you have to make—and you don’t
know all the information.

You’ve
found out all you can, you’ve sought counsel, you’ve prayed—

but there
is this uncertainty about the future that unnerves you.

You may be trapped in uncertainty, you may be
world’s worst is second guessing.

If you are in Christ, God is with you.He’s been with you.He will be with you.

He sees
your toil and trouble and he will bring you to the Promised Land.

Even if you move ahead and things don’t work out as
you had hoped.

Even if
people respond in ways you hoped they wouldn’t.God is with you.

This will
give you a confidence in your prayers and plans.

MP#1Knowing God is with you makes you a humble
person.

Jacob was fearful, but he was also
self-confident.

I know that
sounds contradictory, but by self-confident I mean for much of his life

he relied
on himself and not on God.That was also
the source of his fear.

Jacob thought that if anything good was going to
happen, if he was going to get

ahead in
life, it would be up to him.He would
have to scheme and push.

That’s what motivated him to deceive his father
Isaac to get blessing.

Jacob
relied on his cleverness, relied on his wits to get ahead.

He later relied on his work and determination.

If I can
only grit it out seven years, and another seven years, and six years.

If I can
only be clever enough, then I’ll get ahead.

And then Jacob looked up one day and he was a prosperous
man.

When he speaks to Laban he says:I worked hard for you, I was honest.

You think
at first Jacob is bragging about himself.

He’s
not.He’s setting the record straight
with Laban’s relatives.

No, Jacob’s not boasting in himself.Look at verse 42 again

Jacob
attributed all of his success to the lord.

If the Lord
had not been with me, would have gone home empty-handed.

God has
seen my hardship.He’s seen my tears and
sweat.Seen my treatment.

Jacob had come to realize that everything good in
his life has happened because

of the
active, caring presence of God.And
there’s even more to it than that.

He’s realized that this is a fallen world and there
are lots of evil people.

And no
matter how clever you are, how hard you work or how good you try to be,

unless the
Lord is with you, that evil will eventually wear you down and ruin you.

Jacob says:I
would have been empty-handed.

Full of
regrets and bitterness, broken dreams, lost opportunities.

Disappointed with life.That’s
what sin does.

And it’s not just the evil of other people, and life
in a fallen world—it was Jacob’s

own sins
and failures.His sin made everything
more complicated.

But God worked it out, and he was standing on the
border of the Promised Land.

There are places in your life where you need the
humility to say—

I’m going
to work hard, but if the Lord is not with me, I will be empty-handed.

If you
don’t, you’re going to end your days in bitterness and regret.

You must come to believe, not just in head, but in
your soul, that God with you.

Working and
caring for you.Trust him, even when you
don’t see his hand.

MP#3Knowing God is with you makes you a
worshipping person.

This is certainly the biggest thing.This is the real life-changing effect of
faith.

That the
knowledge of the Lord’s presence throughout your life fills you

with
wonder, awe, and worship.

The mystery of God’s presence amazes you.

When you
catch glimpses of God’s hand you praise him.

Here it is with Jacob—and you have to see how far he
has come spiritually.

Who is this
God who has been with him his whole life?

What does
he call him?

“The God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear
of Isaac.”

Jacob is
affirming in those names that God works through the generations.

He’s saying:I believe God began to be with me to bless me even before I was born.

There is a
complexity and thoroughness to his plans for me that is amazing.

Look at this wonderful name he calls the Lord—the
Fear of Isaac.

This is the
God before whom my father Isaac stood in awe and wonder.

And now I
fear him too.

Jacob looks at the past 20 hard years of his life
and he worships.

He looks
farther back than that, to his father, and grandfather and he worships.

Because he believes that God has been at work in
ways seen and unseen—

through the
generations, always keeping his promises.

Someone has compared the way God is with us and
works for us to the

autonomic
nervous system of our bodies.

We don’t watch over the beating of our hearts, or
our respiration, or any of the other

biological
processes that keep us alive.Those
things are so deep, that we don’t

even think
of them.We focus on how we feel, our
plans for today.Surface stuff.

So it is with the Christian life.There are such deep things going on, deep
ways

God is
working in your life, over years, over generations.

It brings to mind those amazing words of David,
Psalm 139.

O
LORD, you have searched me and you know me.You know when I sit and when I rise; you
perceive my thoughts from afar.You
discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.Before a word is on my tongue you know it
completely, O LORD.You hem me in—behind
and before; you have laid your hand upon me.Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain . . .
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!Were I to count them, they would outnumber
the grains of sand. When I awake, I am
still with you.

If we could
fully grasp this, how different our lives would be.

A
Story of God Working In the Life of a Believer

I’ve covered those three points quickly, because I
want to tell you the story.

How did the
Holy Spirit communicate this truth, that the Lord is with us?

He didn’t
just tell us, he gave us a story, the life of Jacob.

Nothing convinces us more of the presence and faithfulness
of God than

those kinds
of stories.I ran across one a few
months ago that I want to share.

It’s rare to see a story of God faithfulness in the
mainstream media, but that’s where

I first
read it, back in December of 2011.Maybe
you saw it.

A number of media outlets covered this story, but
the best was a local newspaper

article
written by Tom Berg of the The Orange
County Register.

San Clemente, California—For 77 years she kept it
hidden inside.Her secret.

Each
May 22, Minka Disbrow silently wished a happy birthday to the baby girl she
gave away

in 1929. How is she, Disbrow wondered. Where is she? Who
is she?

But
there was no way of knowing. Not after
what happened so long ago.

Back then, no one talked about sex. Or pregnancy. Or 16-year-old girls who were raped

among the small dairy farms of South Dakota.
So Disbrow bottled up her secret deep
inside.

And kept it there.

Months
turned into years. Years into decades. Until Disbrow woke up May 22, 2006, and after

wishing happy birthday to her little girl,
she prayed:“Lord, if you would just let me see Betty

Jane, I
won’t bother her, I promise. I just want
to see her before I die.”

Some
might consider it a fool’s prayer. Disbrow
was 94.

And her baby girl, if still alive, would be
77.To meet would take a miracle.

Scatterwood Lake, South Dakota

She
hauled water from a well. Used an
outhouse for a toilet.

Rode a horse-drawn sled to church in winter.

“At
age 6, we had to pick mustard and potatoes in the field,” says Disbrow, who
also fed pigs

and milked cows before walking to school. Chores increased after eighth grade.

“High school is for city kids with nothing to do,” said her stepdad, who
kept Disbrow home to

work.You can imagine her delight to be invited to a picnic the summer of her
16th year.

It
was held at Scatterwood Lake with girls from a local sewing class.

“Let’s
go for a walk,” said her friend Elizabeth.

They
meandered along the South Dakota lake—unaware of three men watching. Approaching.

The
attack came fast. Its violence was
foreign to a girl who still believed storks delivered

babies.“We couldn’t go back and say we were raped,” Disbrow says.

“We were paralyzed. We never said anything.”

She
had no one to tell. No one to comfort
her. No one to explain what happened.

Nothing but cows that needed milking and
milk that needed bottling

and bottles that needed washing.Nothing but chores.

“You
just kept it all in your heart,” she says. Until her belly started to grow.

She
was sent to the Lutheran Home for Girls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“My mother and stepfather made up their
minds, I was not to come home with a baby.”

It
was there, someone finally explained what had happened and what would happen.

Betty Jane was born May 22, 1929, with a
dimple on her chin

and a good home waiting for her in Iowa.

“She
was my darling,” says Disbrow, who spent a month with her baby before being
sent home.

Back
on the farm, she milked cows each morning, worked in a slaughterhouse all day

and faced more chores at night. Then, in the quiet of her room, she would
write letters to the

Lutheran home asking about her baby.

“How is my Betty Jane?” she wrote in one
letter.

“Any
word from her adoptive parents?I hope
she’s being a good girl.”

“Our
holiday would be complete,”
she wrote in another, “if we were to
just get word about

Betty
Jane.”But of course, she couldn't.

And
so the months turned into years. The
years into decades.

Until Disbrow woke up May 22, 2006, and
prayed to see the little girl she gave away in 1929.

A fool’s prayer?

Within
days, a South Dakota court granted permission to a 77-year-old woman in
Viroqua,

“Oh
my goodness,” she fretted.“What are
people going to think? My own family
doesn’t

know.”Right away, she called a daughter in Portland, Oregon to explain.

Her
secret gushed out—as it did, a joy overtook the pain.

“I
never heard her so excited,” says Dianna Huhn, 65, of Portland, one of two
children Disbrow

had from her marriage to Eugene Disbrow.

“And
from that day on, I have never seen my mom so happy.”

Disbrow’s family, friends and church all
embraced her story.

Grown
men cried when she described it at Heritage Christian Fellowship in San
Clemente.

And when mother and daughter met?

“It was like we’d known each other all our
lives,” says Ruth Lee, now 82.

“It
was like we never parted,” says Disbrow,

who recently told this story to friends at
her 100th birthday party.

When
I read that story, I knew that there had to be more to it.

That this news story had barely scratched
the surface of this woman’s faith.

So
I called her church in San Clemente, spoke to a member who told me to go on

their website and listen to the audio
recording of her giving her

testimony back in 2008 when she was 96.

Just
as I suspected, it was a testimony to the presence of God.

I wrote down some of her words at the
beginning and the end.

She
begins with this:

“God works in mysterious ways, his wonders
to perform.Who can fathom the depth of
his wisdom, or his love as he works out all things according to his purposes
and our good.I have been given the
opportunity to scan my life of 96 years because of something that happened
recently.Can we know the destiny of
lives, families, cities, and nations?The Bible says the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, and to seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto thee.I pondered these words
in my heart and mind as my life took a dramatic turn in July of 2006.”

At
this point she tells the whole story of her assault, pregnancy, giving up her
child

for adoption and the reunion with her
daughter and family 77 years later.

There
were a number of facts that were not in the news story which were very

significant to her.Places where she saw God’s hand.

One
was that she found out, after being reunited with her daughter, that the
adoptive

parents were a godly Lutheran pastor and his
wife.And she found out that for the

rest of their lives, they has prayed for
her.

She
said, Not only did I pray for my daughter all those years,

“I too had been the recipient of the prayers
of my daughter’s adoptive parents.”

She
listed with amazement the accomplishments of her six grandchildren.

One an astronaut (lives in Alabama).Two teachers.One a football coach.

One a lieutenant colonel in the army.One an engineer for Bowing.

Said:If I had been raped today, would have been
counseled to have an abortion.

And the world would have been denied this
wonderful family.

This
is how she ended her testimony:

“My life was a challenge and hampered by a
lack of education.But I look back and I
see his guidance and direction, leading me to a higher spiritual realm, a
higher spiritual maturity . . . I am blessed beyond measure.To God be the glory.And to all others who had a part in my
growing up in him, held in his hand and grafted into his plan.

Hope
is that which gets us up in the morning when we know God cares, but haven’t
seen any evidence of it in the past days, weeks, months, or sometimes
years.Hope drives us onward when we
want to stop and quit.Hope keeps our
dreams alive while we are waiting.And
we need hope because we can’t always control the time table.2 Samuel 22:31 says, ‘As for God, his way is
perfect.The Word of the Lord is
flawless, he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.’

May
these words give someone hope, a new lease on life, for our Lord and Savior
promised never to leave us or forsake us, and sent his blessed Holy Spirit to
guide and to direct us.The Father’s
love, mercy, and grace endureth unto all generations, and he is still in
control of all things, now and forever.May your prayer be:Father, open
the eyes of my heart to see who you are, and I lay my cares at your feet.”

A
true story.

And
every single child of God in this room has a similar story the Lord’s

faithfulness, provision, protection and care
through the thick and thin of life.

The
Lord doesn’t always pull back the curtain like he did for Jacob and for Minka

Disbow.And even in her case, she went for 77 years not knowing the details

of how he was working and how he was
answering so many prayers.

But
even if the Lord had chosen not to reveal it to her in this life but had waited

until heaven, even then, he would have still
been faithful and at work in her life.

Friends,
you too can say, you must say, as Jacob said to Laban—

“If God had not been with me.”

All
those long years, even when I often forgot that he was with me.

Even when I acted as no one should act who
is walking with God.

Even
when I sometimes searched for the sight of God’s hand and couldn’t see it.